


all things made out of iron

by seularen



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-07-01 04:57:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15767055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seularen/pseuds/seularen
Summary: She blinked the smoke from her eyes, but there was no smoke—the vision faded. Ben was still talking. “—back with more forces. Two Padawans and a Force Ghost are a scouting party. Not a raiding party.”(For the prompt: Rey and Ben are Padawans together, and Qui-Gon Jinn is their Master.)





	all things made out of iron

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xenolinguistics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xenolinguistics/gifts).



> Mentions of things that happened in Legends. Very light Rey/Ben, if you want it.
> 
> Title is from The Upanishads: “As by knowing one tool of iron, dear one,   
> We come to know all things made out of iron -  
> That they differ only in name and form,   
> While the stuff of which all are made is iron -
> 
> So through spiritual wisdom, dear one,   
> We come to know that all of life is one.”

The forest did not yield, no matter how she pushed. Her lightsaber could only cut through so much at a time. 

“I took off my robe a long time ago,” Ben commented, eyes on the canopy, as if telling the trees about his choice. Rey gritted her teeth.

“I didn’t ask your opinion.” She flicked her robe closer to her ankles; almost immediately, it snagged again.

“You’re slowing us down.”

“I don’t see _you_ cutting a path,” Rey said. Her next motions were choppy, taking more than was necessary. They walked through a wider path, but guilt plagued her. On Jakku, you never killed a living plant. To atone, her next strokes barely cut a path at all. As she ducked under a branch, she heard a familiar hum—“No!” she yelped, even as she jumped out of the way of the felled branch. Whirling, she glared at Ben. “ _Why_?”

“Because you wouldn’t,” he replied, as if it was as simple as that. He walked past her, intending to take the lead. Rey opened her mouth to retort, but both stopped. The air around them filled with a humming.

“Is there a problem?” The spectral voice of Qui-Gon Jinn sounded amused. _He_ wasn’t burdened by the thorns, Rey sourly noted.

“I apologize, Master,” Ben said, as smooth as if the last hour of frustrations hadn’t happened. Rey rolled her eyes and spoke over whatever lie Ben was going to say next.

“There’s no problem,” she said, narrowing her eyes as Ben scowled at her interruption, “Just making our way through.”

“I estimate another twenty minutes – forty at our current pace.”

“A few minutes won’t m—”

“I sense a disturbance,” Qui-Gon’s voice interrupted their spat. They immediately fell silent. “Far more than usual.”

“From the town?” Rey asked.

“Perhaps.” His kind eyes softened the tone. “What do you feel, Rey?” She shot another look at Ben, instinctively – his face was blank this time, but at her raised eyebrows he nodded. She nodded back, once, decisive. Then she closed her eyes, reached out. It was like sinking into sand. She’d had the same feeling back on Jakku—sinking yet floating, a heaviness that pushed her down underneath the ground into the current of the earth itself—and now it was the marker she always conjured before venturing into unknown depths. Sinking, yes, but not into sand. Into the vibrations connecting all life, living and dead—

“Good,” Qui-Gon murmured. His presence was another warm hand, gently pushing her deeper through layers of earth and mind, into the moving Force underneath. “Now, reach out. What’s there, that wasn’t before?”

She searched, extending herself with each breath. Inhale: gathering her tendrils. Exhale: extending them all forward. Inhale: letting the tendrils vibrate. Exhale: the tendrils grew, reached further. Again, and again, just like Qui-Gon had taught her, until she’d made a web and could look for what she might have caught.

As Rey focused on her breath, Ben sat and stared at her. Master Jinn said each Jedi was called to use the Force in different ways. Rey, apparently, was good at this -- sensing. Ben ran his tongue across the inside of his cheek as he watched her eyes move underneath closed eyelids. He thought he’d been good at reaching out through the Force. He’d been the one to find her, after all.

He tried not to fidget. Qui-Gon’s visage appeared in front of him, wearing a kind smile. Ben hated it. He didn’t need pity.

“I can find the danger, Master,” he said. He could. He wouldn’t let anyone be hurt; he could take care of it faster than Rey, too, if it came to that. Qui-Gon’s smile faded to a look of concentration. Ben sat up straighter.

“What do _you_ feel, Ben?” Qui-Gon asked. Cleary a challenge. Ben frowned and closed his eyes, determined to prove himself. The Force throbbed around him, noisy with the life of the forest. He pushed that away. _What’s there that wasn’t before_ , Qui-Gon had asked Rey. Qui-Gon already knew what was wrong. Ben just had to figure out what his Master would see, and how he would see it. The Force flowed around Qui-Gon, life and death in the same energy. He forgot who he was, forgot to feel –

“Release your breath, “Qui-Gon urged. Ben hadn’t realized he was holding it. He gulped an inhale, his exhale violent. His lungs felt tight. He inhaled again, forcing his lungs out; his back cracked as his breath stretched against tight muscle. Another exhale, and the oxygen made him feel dizzy. How long had he been breathing so shallow?

““Don’t shy away from your feelings, Ben,” Qui-Gon said. “They can tell you what path you walk, and give you enough warning to change your path – if you listen.”

“How—” Ben breathed, unable to finish the sentence. He felt Rey inhale, as if she’d just remembered to breathe too. His heart constricted; he’d forgotten about her.

“Rey, tell us what you’ve discovered,” Qui-Gon said. Ben’s eyes flew open. 

“But, Master—”

“I found it,” Rey interrupted Ben, looking only at their Master. Ben thought he wanted her eyes on him — _‘don’t shy away from your feelings, Ben’_ —thought: I can name this. This is jealousy. Possessiveness. Unworthy of a Jedi. But when she turned, eyes wide, urgent and sincere — he knew he was wrong. He did not have the language to describe what those eyes stirred. The Jedi had never written about love.

“You’re disturbed, Padawan,” Qui-Gon murmured, drawing attention back. He could sense from Ben’s twitch that the boy thought he was being chastised. The girl, however, only sat straighter. 

“I—” Rey bit her tongue. Qui-Gon inhaled slowly, suppressing a smile. She believed whatever she had to say, but knew there was no politick way to express it. Qui-Gon was grateful; there was some progress in her hesitation.

“Speak what you feel, Rey. There is power in the truth.”

“Who says she’ll speak the truth?” Ben’s mouth twisted, as if he hadn’t even meant to say it. Qui-Gon gave him a passive stare.

“Patience, young apprentice, perhaps you’ll find out.” The comment was mild, Qui-Gon thought, but he felt the burst of emotions in both young ones like lashes. He was grateful he flowed through the Force; he was much less likely to sigh impatiently. “Please, Rey, continue.”

Silence descended through the canopy, down around them. The crickets and frogs quieted; the birds forgot to chirp. Rey’s voice began tremulous. 

“They all have this image in their minds. Ribbons flying in the wind. Black and yellow, entwined.” 

Ben and Qui-Gon exchange a glance. Rey looked between them but did not understand. 

“They’re scared of everything, and the fear makes them angry,” she continued. “The anger, it’s like rot. Everything’s going to collapse under it. Except it _isn’t_ collapsing. They’ve wound these ribbons through it all--they think it holds them up. But it’s holding up something that should be destroyed.” She looked first at her Master, then at Ben. Ben would not meet her gaze. “What is it? A king’s colors? Are they all slaves?” 

“Slaves,” Ben repeated in an undertone, as Qui-Gon said, “In a way, Rey, you are correct. They are slaves to those emotions you sensed. That is why, as Jedi, we are wary of strong emotions. We use them, instead of them using us.” 

“But what _is_ it, then?” Rey insisted. She knew they weren’t telling her something. She hated feeling left behind; she’d worked so hard to be equal to the other padawans. This was another unwelcome reminder she would always have to work twice as hard to make up for being an uneducated junkrat most of her life. 

“We should turn back,” Ben said. That only made her jut out her chin. 

“No. Master Luke sent us here for a reason. We have to—” 

“We don’t have to do _anything_ ,” Ben said, slamming an open palm on the ground. A ripple moved through the Force. A vision rocked her: _those same black and yellow ribbons, dancing through wind on a balcony; behind the ribbons, a city burned—a hundred miles of fire and screaming until the horizon swallowed the misery. A floating ember caught the end of one of the ribbons, and fire began to eat away at that too. And everything was death. And everything was power._ She blinked the smoke from her eyes, but there was no smoke—the vision faded. Ben was still talking. “—back with more forces. Two Padawans and a Force Ghost are a scouting party. Not a raiding party.” 

Master Qui-Gon was quiet a moment. He had closed his own eyes. Then he made a humming sound.

“We will follow the Force,” Qui-Gon said. It was hard to argue with that, Rey thought, but Ben had opened his mouth to try. Qui-Gon anticipated his objection. “And we will follow common sense, too. I don’t remember anything in Yoda’s teachings that said a Jedi couldn’t use both. You see rightly, Ben. This situation has risk. We invite even more risk by continuing on. But that is the life we have chosen as Jedi: peacemakers cannot make peace unless they place themselves in the dangerous places that most need it. I trust both of you. I have never seen two Padawans work so well together. And I trust Luke as well--his vision saw us here. Does that mean we have the tools to help these people? I don’t know.” 

His honesty, as always, was the balm that soothed both Padawans. He had long ago learned that these two did not want the beautiful lies or even the easier half-truths other young ones craved on their slow awakening. Rey and Ben had already been fully awake when Luke had called to Qui-Gon and asked him to be their Master. They had seen with closed eyes, and were afraid of what they could not understand. If left alone, or with the wrong guidance, that ignorance could be warped, turned into something darker. They were not like Obi-Wan, who had the luxury of years in the Jedi Temple. It was too late for them to tread the easy path; their journeys had begun like Xanatos, and Ani. He could hear Yoda’s voice chastising him for the thought: _’Begun in pain, yes, and in strife. But one path, there is not.’_ Qui-Gon did not need the reminder; he knew it to be true. Ben’s fear and Rey’s insecurity were not his failures as a Master, just as Ben’s staggering insights and Rey’s fierce tactical brilliance were not his successes. That, after all, was the secret to manifesting after death: achieving eternal consciousness required absolute selflessness. It was selflessness that helped him see his Padawans as they truly were, rather than who he wanted them to become. It gave him insights that Luke had never considered. Right now, in their confusion and disarray, they did not want to be calmed. The stripped truth, a harsh light that would blind other Padawans, was, instead, the best tool he had to chase the shadows of the Dark Side from _his_ Padawans’ hearts. 

“All we know,” he said, “Is that the Force will guide us to help these people. If we let it.”

“We will, Master,” Rey murmured, and Ben was not far behind in agreeing, “Yes, Master. We will do all we can.” 

He smiled at them both. Pride was not an emotion Jedi were supposed to feel. But the Jedi Order was gone. They made their own paths to the Light now. “Ben? Will you lead the way?”


End file.
